Data Services Company Counts on DataRight IQ

C.TRAC Direct advises customers and executes data management and analysis programs. They create, coordinate and execute multichannel customer contact and direct marketing campaigns for their customers, and they couldn’t do it without Firstlogic’s DataRight IQ^®.

• Precision

  Direct mail is increasingly data-driven. C. TRAC Direct builds solutions for their customers to drive response with targeted communications.

• Performance

  Large data files are common at C.TRAC Direct. They mail over 2 million pieces per day. Data manipulation software from Firstlogic handles the load.

• Productivity

  C.TRAC Direct has been using Firstlogic’s products for many years. They process a diverse collection of applications, dealing with many different data types. The staff relies on DataRight IQ^® to handle demanding tasks that require flexible and creative solutions.

“I’ve never had to say no to a data conversion request.” That’s what Gina Greco, Manager of Data Services at C.TRAC Direct – A MidWest Direct Company, said when discussing her experience with Firstlogic’s DataRight IQ^® suite of data quality tools. Greco and her team use DataRight IQ extensively as they tackle complicated tasks designed to help customers use data to their advantage.

Sometimes it gets excessively challenging. In one instance, the C.TRAC team needed to select random customers meeting various criteria to mail catalogs based on store locations. The retailer supplied a grid specifying the number of customers to select for each of 150 identified key codes and for each of its 100 retail locations. That’s 15,000 different “nth” record selections! C.TRAC used DataRight IQ to build routines that satisfied the customer’s unique demands.

“I’ve never had to say no to a data conversion request”

Gina Greco | Manager of Data Services | C.TRAC Direct

Data Quality Software Enables Business Growth

C.TRAC began as a data company specializing in marketing applications. They spent years developing standard routines and procedures, creating documentation, and honing their skills with Firstlogic’s DataRight IQ^® and associated products such as ACE^® (Address Correction and Encoding), and Match/Consolidate^®. In 2016 Midwest Direct, a direct mail service provider and mail presorting company acquired C.TRAC.

The merged company services customers in healthcare, banking, retail, and other industries. They create direct mail and transactional documents including tax bills, invoices, statements, and ballots. Besides their highly advanced data manipulation and data cleansing skills, C.TRAC Direct distinguishes itself in the marketplace by performing back-end analysis for many of their customers. Their big box retail customers, for example, send C.TRAC sales information after a promotion concludes. C.TRAC matches sales information with the mailing data, providing metrics the retailers can use to evaluate marketing campaign effectiveness.

“We’ll use DataRight IQ three or four times as we process customer data”

Gina Greco | Manager of Data Services | C.TRAC Direct

A Step Above the Others

Interestingly, Midwest Direct had been using different software for postal address correction, move update, and presorting when they acquired C.TRAC. Gina showed her new managers how C.TRAC’s industry know-how leveraging Firstlogic software allowed them to create new marketable services for the company that wouldn’t be possible with Midwest Direct’s existing postal software solution. She demonstrated how the Firstlogic products were better engineered and pointed to their long history of success with the software. Midwest Direct was so impressed they switched the bulk of their jobs over to the Firstlogic platform – something an acquiring company rarely does.

DataRight IQ

Not all the processes at C.TRAC are as demanding as the catalog random selection project, but Data Services uses DataRight IQ in each job, often multiple times. “We’ll use DataRight IQ three or four times as we process customer data, even for fairly simple jobs,” said Gina Greco, “The output from one process often becomes input to the next process.”

The practice of using the Firstlogic tools multiple times within a data manipulation workflow allows C.TRAC to take on projects that would challenge less-capable software. In one case, customer data comes to C.TRAC in transactional form. A header record precedes a variable number of detail records, followed by a trailer record. Each record type is formatted differently and contains information necessary to create invoices. Many data cleansing products choke at such a data file arrangement. The C.TRAC team devised DataRight IQ routines to pull data from the different record types, do the necessary processing, and then reunite the data. The process makes it possible for the company to produce invoices with their document composition software.

Though Firstlogic software is thoroughly ingrained in C.TRAC operations, the company still re-evaluates software about every five years, comparing the Firstlogic data quality tools to others on the market. C.TRAC researches the marketplace and invites vendors to compete for their data quality software business.

“The other vendors usually can’t equal the functionality we see from the Firstlogic software”

Gina Greco | Manager of Data Services | C.TRAC Direct

“The other vendors usually can’t equal the functionality we see from the Firstlogic software. When I ask about capabilities like we find in advanced matching, such as allowing us to compare multiple types of matches, the conversations usually end,” said Greco. “We may not be a typical DataRight IQ^® user. I know we push the limits at times. We’ve even used DataRight IQ to create temporary data items we used internally to process the work more efficiently. We used that technique on a ballot job that required us to generate samples at pre-determined intervals. That stumped me for a while, but I got help from Firstlogic’s technical support. It turned out the solution was actually pretty easy.”

Data Quality… a Competitive Advantage

As direct marketing campaigns become more targeted and personalized, clean data becomes even more important. Many companies collect plenty of data. Putting it to use is a different matter. That’s where C.TRAC excels. They feel their deep understanding and sometimes innovative use of the Firstlogic software gives them a competitive advantage. The software allows their company to exploit the functionality of their modern document production facilities. Midwest Direct’s large digital inkjet printing presses produce highly personalized and segmented documents based on variable data. These high-value documents create positive results for their customers.

“Companies accumulate plenty of data but much of it is underused. C.TRAC discovered how to realize new value using DataRight IQ,” said David Menagh, Firstlogic’s Director of Solutions Delivery, ”Not only does this product make complex data handling possible without heavy IT support, it allows companies like C.TRAC to pursue new business opportunities, driving higher customer satisfaction and revenues. DataRight IQ has made data transformation a competitive advantage for our customers.”

“Companies accumulate plenty of data but much of it is underused. C.TRAC discovered how to realize new value using DataRight IQ,”

David Menagh | Director of Solutions Delivery | Firstlogic Solutions

Positioned For Growth & Success

Customer communication and marketing messages today use data to create relevant, compelling, and personal interactions with current and future customers. Variable data use and personalization is expected to increase over time. Though C.TRAC may have more demanding data situations than the average service provider, they have proven the DataRight IQ software can handle the most difficult data tasks. The product will provide valuable data manipulation functions for any level of complexity and for all types of organizations.

C.TRAC anticipates increasing customer demand for data quality, consolidation, enhancement, and matching. They expect to continue expanding the analytics aspect of their services to help customers evaluate and fine tune multi-channel marketing campaigns. With the entire C.TRAC Data Services team trained and using DataRight IQ, the company is confident they can meet future demands and provide customers with the data that drives applications and outperforms ordinary marketing and customer messaging solutions.

Trusted Data Quality Partner

Firstlogic Solutions delivers Firstlogic and SAP data quality solutions to data-driven companies. Firstlogic Data Quality (DQ) and SAP Data Services (DS) software combines file preparation, data profiling, address quality, geocoding, data enhancement and matching/consolidation.

To find out how software from Firstlogic can help your organization be more productive, accurate, and competitive, contact us to schedule a discovery call and arrange a free trial.